“Robot! Robot! Robot coming through!” could be heard through the “pit” area of Niles High School Friday morning as 40 teams of students from across Michigan assembled, tweaked and inspected their 120-pound robots for competition.

The district debuted this year not only a rookie FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) team — the 24-member Fallout — but stepped up by playing host to a regional competition, held Friday and today in the gym. The competition is open to the public.

To fully understand FIRST Robotics is to experience it first-hand. It requires lots of time, money and patience. But the six-week project literally changes students’ outlook on careers and science in general.

FIRST selects a new game to play each year. The season kicked off in January, and teams have six weeks to construct a full-size robot and a “mini-bot.” For its 20th season, FIRST’s game, Logo Motion, consists of two competing alliances with three robots each that play on a flat field. They compete to hang as many inflated plastic triangles, circles and squares on their grids as they can during a 2-minute 15-second match. The higher the teams hang their game pieces on their scoring grid, the more points their alliance receives. The game consists of three periods: autonomous (no drivers), alone/over ubertube and mini-bot race bonus.

Matthew Sergio, part of the seven-member Excel team, which includes home-school students from Niles and Buchanan, said robotics opened his eyes to the field of engineering.

“I think I definitely want to go into engineering,” he said Friday. “You learn so much. If I didn’t get into robotics, I don’t think I would have went into engineering.”

Excel may be small — the average team is 25 members — but it has been successful in its four-year run, with two state qualifications. The team also has students who participated in a previous Lego robotics team that went to nationals and was invited to the White House.

“I like having a small team because you know everyone,” Excel member Lance Rensberger said.

But robotics isn’t all fun and games. It requires substantial funding, which the students must obtain through sponsorships. Excel, which was not able to attend one state competition due to lack of funding, received more than $4,000 from from AEP in addition to other donations this year.

Niles High School’s team also had to obtain sponsorships its first year, so the team formed a finance committee. Fallout competed in its first regional competition two weeks ago in Waterford, Mich. Its alliance — which included Excel and Kalamazoo-based Stryker Force — won its first match Friday 63-17.

“As a rookie team we did have our difficulties,” Fallout member Dillon Stone said. “(But) FIRST Robotics is a very friendly community.”

NHS Principal Jim Knoll said the team and competition ideas were devised by Supt. Richard Weigel last summer.

“Not only did we just start a team, we decided to host an event,” Knoll said.

FIRST Robotics competitions are huge undertakings, with hundreds of students in attendance in addition to judges, referees, robot inspectors and safety advisers. Firefighters, police officers, Southwestern Michigan Community Ambulance Service and electricians were even on hand. Numerous community volunteers are needed to do tasks ranging from doling out required eye safety goggles to making sure the playing field is organized.

But all the work is well worth it, students and mentors agree. Of the 2,075 FIRST Robotics teams, 1,663 are veteran teams, which accounts for a 92 percent retention rate.

For the rookie Fallout members, it’s been a learning experience.

“Awesome,” said Tara McFadden — who serves as the human feeder, throwing the plastic tubes into the playing field during contests — after their first win Friday. “I can’t even explain how happy I am right now.”